This was written about 7 years ago as at Nov 2014. I still have the same feelings but things may have changed a bit…

Our Problem

This problem is ours. Sometimes you read stories about people complaining about cats that are feral. Or, when reading blogs or comments on blogs, you notice people making derogatory remarks about these cats and how they spread disease and upset the neighborhood etc. There is no point moaning about feral cats as if we are blaming the cats for the problem. The problem is ours in the same way as is obesity or bad debt or any other human condition. The difference with these cats is we are hurting them instead of ourselves. If we fail to take full responsibility for our feline companions they more often than not end up being destroyed by us – Shooting Feral Cats. Or this: Local Feral Cats in Pennsylvania, USA. These are just two examples.

For the sake of clarity — definitions:

Feral cats: originating from the domestic cat — no or little contact with people and born outside of human society. They are wild domestic cats. The domestic cat is a domesticated European wildcat.

Wildcats: 36 species (or is it 37?) ranging widely in size and appearance. Entirely wild. No connection with people except in terms of people persecuting them over centuries.

Stray cats: domestic cats that were once living in a human’s home and which are now homeless or possibly time share cats of some sort. Difference between stray and feral cats [link].

It is fundamentally wrong (as the Wikipedia authors have or had done – Wikipedia is constantly amended) to write about cats that have become feral in the same vein as say rats or other animals that have evolved without humankind’s intervention. But for us there would be no feral cats. At a fundamental level, they are created from abandoned unneutered domestic cats that were once with a human family. Of course they then breed on their own but we started the process. We should not shirk our responsibilities towards them. Unfortunately we do and we do it over and over again by the millions. I criticise and animal control officers approach to feral cats on this page.

Yet, there are a good number of fine people who take responsibility and who act with kindliness towards them. These people like feral cats and I am pleased and proud to say that over 100 (and counting) have contributed to this site in sharing their experiences (Click here to see visitors’ submissions)

About Feral Cats

Feral cats may and frequently do live in colonies. Colonies congregate in an area because it provides protection and food. Such places might be at the rear of hospitals or restaurants as just two examples.

The lifespan of a feral cat is far shorter, unsurprisingly, than that of a domestic cat, at about 2 years if solitary and 10 years if there is a human caretaker1. Domestic cat live to 15 years plus to a max of about 25 years (some live longer).

The greatest debate about cats becoming feral is their impact on native species upon which they sometimes prey, if not feeding off waste human food. A lot of people make claims about the devastation of certain wild species (e.g. bird populations). This has rarely happened and when it does it could be because the domestic cat has been introduced deliberately onto a small island to say deal with rats to then prey on a species that is unique to an island and which is naive (meaning no predator response as it had no predator)4. That, once again, would be our fault. The cat acts naturally. There is cause for concern but there are too many wild assertions and unsubstantiated “facts” bandied around on the internet in my opinion. See: How Feral Cats Affect Wildlife [link]. In Australia, New Zealand and certain areas of North America they are considered as pests due to their threat to endangered species. As a consequence desperate and controversial measures are sometimes taken to exterminate them (Ground Shooting of Feral Cats- link in Australia). On occasions there seems be a war between people who should share the same goals.

Back in 2006, I was feeding 19 homeless cats. In March 2007 I trapped these cat’s took them to the humane society payed to have them fixed of which one of the chocolate point Siamese died at the age of 10 months while in recovery. I have been haunted by his death needless to say.

I placed everyone except 5 cats up for adoption and they all found forever homes one of the cats I kept was the other chocolate point Siamese brother.Today I have taken in more feral cats and I am back up to 17 cats that I care for. I just wish there were more people out there that could give these cats a home once the cat is fixed that will be less homeless kitties and maybe by working together we can end the unwanted population of cats not by killing them but by doing something good for the cats so they can lead normal lives and happy ones…Carolyn Minor (housewife, Seffner, FL, USA)

The “battle” between people sensitive to the plight of feral cats (and that as you can tell includes me) and those who dislike them has been fought for almost a century or more. It was recognised in a 1916 report in Massachusetts, USA for instance7 (see the full PDF file for this). A recent battle of this type took place in Beverly Hills. A kindly old lady was participating in TNR and feeding the feral cats. There was dissent and a prosecution, which through the great good sense of the council members (the communities leaders and legislators) turned into a chance to create new city legislation on how to deal with cats that had become feral. Common sense reigned (see the full story).

1916 report for the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture titled The Domestic Cat: Bird Killer, Mouser and Destroyer of Wildlife,

Feral cats are adaptable (so are domestic cats) and can accept hot and cold conditions.

Their diet varies depending on the environment in which they find themselves. In Australia they prey on European rabbits and/or mice in arid areas, marsupials (mammals, that have a pouch (called the marsupium), in which females carry their young through early infancy) in forests and urban areas. Birds and reptiles form a relatively small part of their diet6. Feral cats favour ground dwelling animals over birds10.

Yet there are many estimates (by so called experts) of the number of songbirds killed by cats generally and they are large numbers. Exact numbers are not known and estimates made (a dangerous way of doing things I would suggest). Some say that domestic and feral cats in the USA kill hundreds of millions of birds annually9. There would seem to be a war going on between bird conservationists and cat lovers.

In California, USA Ron Jurek, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, says that the population of cats that are feral in urban areas is greater than that which nature can support9. The fallacy in that argument is that nature does not support ferals in urban areas or not wholly so. It is the rubbish of humans or the kindness of humans. Perhaps something needs to be done about how rubbish is dealt with.

In urban areas, he said, there are hundreds of cats per square mile (1.6 square kilometers)—more cats than nature can support.

Feral cats are preyed upon by dogs and coyotes for example (in the USA). In other parts of the world it might be: humans, feral dogs, wolves, bears, cougars, bobcats, foxes, feral pigs, crocodilians, snakes, and birds of prey (see for example: loss of a dwarf cat on a balcony)

The history of feral cats must parallel the history of the domestication of the wildcat. As soon as a cat is domesticated there is the prospect of it being abandoned back from whence it came: the wild and becoming feral.

In Australia, where they consider the feral cat a major problem (it seems) it is thought that they “arrived” on the scene in 18242. Other than that assessment they have been there since the European settlers arrived (my preference). They may even have arrived before the Europeans. It is possible that they arrive with Dutch shipwrecks (1600s) or Indonesian fishermen3.

There are too many speculative and inaccurate studies on feral cats published on the internet. Here is one example: Feral Cats and their Management – LINK

If you use this search box to search for “feral cats” you will find many pages on this subject:

Steve Wozniak

What prompted me to build this page was a news item (via Business Wire) about Steve Wozniak (Apple founder with Steve Jobs) who has teamed up with Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV) to heighten awareness of the this problem in the Santa Clara county. He did this by presenting a video now on YouTube. It’s very good. Here it is……

“Thank you Steve Wozniak. Every time I see homeless, helpless animals, I wish I had millions to save them all. I will be trapping, neutering and releasing 4 feral cats next week. I’m glad I can do my part. They are sweethearts.”(Neighborhood Cat Lady).

Trap, neuter, return

Of course the problem is nationwide and indeed worldwide. It has been said by people wiser than me that the measure of how civilized we are is how we treat the vulnerable and less fortunate than ourselves. The vulnerable includes animals and that includes cats and cats includes abandoned cats (they were once companion cats or their parents or grandparents were as I said). It has been found that the most humane way to deal with them is to trap-neuter-return (TNR). {This could be refined by this: TTVARM: trap, test, vaccinate, alter, release, maintain5}. Taming wild feral cats and kittens [link] is possible. “Return” in this context means to rehome kittens/cats that can be tamed (re-domesticated) and to return the remaining ferals to the wild of the urban jungle. Click on this link to see how to catch a stray cat. TNR can be effective. But some people see things differently.

TNR is the only humane way to deal with feral cats as at 2010, it could be argued. Simply killing them (the objective of many people) does not work (see vacuum phenomenon) unless the entire population of cats can be extirpated as may be the case on a small island for example. However, I stress that TNR deals with the cats and not with the root cause of the problem, the irresponsible people who fail to take care for their cat companions in a proper manner. There may (must?) be others, but I only know of one city, Beverly Hills, in the USA where city laws have been recently enacted to deal with the feral cats humanely and sensibly by tackling human behavior not cat behavior.

The above said, there are arguments that TNR simply does not work. Indeed some argue it encourages the expansion of the feral cat as for example feral cats come to the site of TNR from outside the area. In Australia there is an argument that says very large feral cats are evolving and more drastic steps must be taken8.

Please tell us your views, stories, tragedies and successes here. And if you have any ideas to solve the problem we’d like to hear them. Please scroll down to see the submissions by visitors or myself.

Here is an example from a visitor, Susie Bearder, who has cared for a good number of cats: A cat in a box and other tails. Update to Susie’s eBook 23rd Sept 2010:Cat in the Box Tikka is no more — She went down fast over the last few days, putting herself in a corner of a room. ‘You just know when time has come’ a vet once told me. My mum had to come back with her second baby to be put alongside her brother.

Sylvia Ann has her own views on how to deal with feral cats and cat caretaking. This is an essay demonstrating her personal flavour of prose and argument: Can Education Succeed Without Funding?

What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page…You can add your views to the submissions by making a comment; just click on the link at the base of the article.

Euthanasia of Feral Cats My mind just turned to the euthanasia of feral cats and why it is not a crime. There is no such crime as cat murder or “felocide”. But there are extensive …

Feline Rabies Feline rabies may be the savior of the feral cat in Asia at least in respect of the cat meat and fur market, although I doubt it. There will still be …

Relocating Feral Cats There is a thought that Relocating Feral Cats is one viable way of managing feral cat colonies. It is an alternative or an addition to the classic trap …

Proactivity

Proactive measures are better than reacting to the problem, which is what is happening. If each cat keeper acted in a fully responsible way it would be the end of cats that have become feral in the West. Even if you look at these cats from a commercial standpoint (the standpoint that seems to carry the most weight) it pays to carry out the TNR policy as it is apparently more expensive to euthanize them. On the issue of money……………..

Behind the scenes business

I have not seen anyone talk about this except on Yahoo Answers. And I am simply thinking aloud. We know that over 2 million cats are destroyed each year by shelters (not much sheltering really is it?). If a shelter is employing the classic TNR program (ostensibly a no kill shelter) then all the stray cats should be released to where they came from. In other words these cats should not need to be killed unless they have a disease. Cats that are not truly feral but strays that could be rehomed but aren’t would seem to be the kind of cat that is destroyed, therefore. It is probably that a large number of these cats are destroyed rather than returned in the majority of shelters.

We also know that businesses use cat fur in a wide range of products. This happens in Europe (Switzerland) and to a large extent in China and the East (where they eat cats). There is always a demand for animal products to supply a wide range of businesses. Here are some possible outlets for dead cats:

cat (and dog) fur. The Chinese like cats to be hardly dead before they are skinned but maybe we are just a little less brutal in the West but still need cat fur. Cat fur is found on a miriad of products from key fobs to items of clothing.

pet food or livestock food

animal glue (this is still used for example in the violin manufacture industry)

cat fur to ease rheumatism (some people believe this)

These are simply some possibilities. I am sure that there are many more. Is big business a barrier to resolving this problem? I don’t know what happens to the 2 or more million dead cats coming out of “shelters”; maybe the cost of running some shelters is being offset by selling the bodies to businesses? This seems very possible as dead livestock is used not only to feed humans but supply many other businesses. The whole animal is used. Why waste a good dead cat? Can someone enlighten us? Just found this video (25-7-09):

Cat Breeders

This problem begs the question of whether cat breeders are to blame or partly to blame for the “crisis”. Certainly a substantial number of people think so, including it seems the owners of the website business Craigslist (it is a business even though it’s a .org website) who forbid cat breeder classified adverts. I can see the argument. Cat breeders produce a desirable “product”. Consumer society responds and buys. More cats are breed. Irresponsible owners abandon or neglect their “purchase”. Abandoned and stray cats are the results. But the Humane Society Silicon Valley’s work with cats turned wild tells us that the problem is one of neutering and neglect. In other words it is not the cat breeder (the seller) who is causing the problem, but the “buyer”, the customer and pet owner. In fact all responsible cat breeders spay and neuter before selling. Further most feral cats are not purebred cats and cat breeders only breed purebred. So the Graiglist policy seems wrong except on an emotional level as it does feel wrong to produce more cats at one end of the chain and kill more at the other end of the line. Almost 75% of shelter cats are euthanized (or killed), which amounts to about 2.2. million in the USA alone, every year.

So, to tackle the problem from the other end means education and more education and this article is one very tiny effort in that direction. Visit: Humane Society Silicon Valley (new window) to learn more. This is a really worthy organization that has been around for 78 years, well before Silicon valley became perhaps one of the richest places on earth. Is there a connection with the wealth of Silicon Valley and the 125,000 feral cat population there? I really don’t think so. You probably see more feral cats in poor areas due to lack of education and the difficulties in the humans managing their own lives leaving little time, effort and knowledge to care for a cat.

The purpose of reviewing a number of websites that write about feral cats is to see what the general feeling about them is across a wide selection of sources. This, I hope, will tell us whether there is commitment and enough enlightenment to resolving this problem. I mark each article as for, against or neutral in their views on this problem. When I say “for” I mean a sympathetic approach. When I say “against” I mean an unsympathetic and unenlightened approach. These are my views of course.

My views are clear but many people have almost opposite views. And the Wikipedia author (who seems to be an Australian – I’m guessing) has a view which is, I think it fair to say, on balance more hostile to the cat turned wild.

{Note: Having read 7 of the top websites I decided to select rather than review each one in the top 50 to avoid repetition. I stopped at 12 because all more or less said the same thing – use TNR, trap neuter return}

Wikipedia (against)
This is the top webpage as found by Google and I’m disappointed (update Feb 2010 – it seems that is has been moderated somewhat since I last read it when it was frankly biased). This says something about this problem. In the Wikipedia article the author describes how damaging the feral cat is to other wildlife. He refers mainly to the feral cats of Australia, where there is a subsantial feral cat problem. He refers to the transmission of illness from feral cat to human as an example of the negative impact of feral cats (Zoonotic risk). He refers to toxoplasmosis (see cat feces and pregnancy) as one example. It is extremely rare for this disease to be transmitted from a cat living with a human never mind a feral cat who we will rarely see. In addition the jury is definitely out on whether feral cats destroy wildlife in Australia to anything but a very small extent. Certainly it is not in any way significant. Most importantly he totally ignores the causes of feral cat populations. There is not one mention of human involvement. The cause is the single most important topic of discussion in relation to this problem as it is the answer to prevention.

the-piedpiper (neutral)This site presents a balanced view. It says that these cats can cause problems when they congregate around or near hospitals and this I can understand. The author says that the most common illnesses suffered by these cats are upper respiratory infections. Lifespan is short at about 2 years she/he says. There is no mention of the root causes or suggestions
for a solution however.

Cat Action Trust (for)This is a charity dedicated to helping cats turned feral and is therefore very much in tune with how to deal with the problem namely trap, neuter and either re-home or return (if impossible to rehome). They say one unneutered female can produce 120 kittens in her lifetime. They deal with mopping up the consequences of irresponsible cat keeping but do not, as far as I could see, propose anything in respect of long term resolution of the problem. There will never be enough volunteers to trap and neuter. If there were there would be less feral cats and that is not the case. So, we need to look deeper and longer.

Celia Hammond Animal Trust – CHAT (for)
This is a truly excellent charity run by a resourceful person that we can only admire. She is doing something. There are few who actually do something and she is doing a lot. I would like to see this charity try to change some of the causes of feral cat populations that remain very high in the world, the USA and in the UK, where Celia Hammond estimates that at least 2 million feral cats survive on the streets. As Celia Hammond is a high profile person maybe she can educate more. The charity does mention the power of education. Perhaps we need to get the politicians involved too? This website donates to this charity and a number of other cat charities.

Feral Cat Sanctuary (neutral)This is a fine project that was started around 1999 and which appears to have failed to secure enough funding. It is based in Guernsey. The idea was to build a feral cat sanctuary from a derelict vineyard. Such cats were already at the vineyard. Well, sadly I think the concept was flawed. However a good point the author of the site makes about these cats is that they are very sociable and live in colonies. It would seem that the members of the colony support each other and cats form relationships.

driftersreach (for)This is a cat shelter in the UK. The provide a valuable service in helping these cats but offer no long term solutions.

Cat Protection (neutral)
This is a well known cat charity in the UK. They have a leaflet on feral cats. It says little (I know I am being a bit critical but I’d expect more). They do say that these cats are no risk to sheep that are not pregnant and are therefore not detrimental to farmers in that area of their operation. Stray cats provide a service to farmers as mousers. They offer no long term solutions but mention neutering.

www.feralcatcare.org.uk (neutral)
This site is on the first page of a Google search (ranked 9 on page 1). It is a site that consists of one page, a missing photo and it is frankly dead (last updated 3 years ago!). No criticism of Google at all but this demonstrates how stale and unimaginative the feral cats problem is in the West. There needs to be new initiatives and government needs to be involved.

www.feralcat.com (for)
This is a much more lively and interesting website about this subject. It contains links to articles by Sarah Hartwell for instance. Her articles point to these conclusions (this is far from a summary):

these cats are often scapegoats for loss of wildlife due to some other cause.

these cats are used to support political argument making surveys invalid as they are tainted by political objectives.

there is insufficient hard data on the issue of stray cats killing wildlife and this applies to Australia and America but the indications are that traffic kills a lot more wildlife than these cats (i.e. humans kill more wildlife than these cats and this is what I would expect).

the call should be to “kill the problem not the cats”

these cats live off introduced species to Australia rather than native animals.

high levels of neutering seem to be taking place by cat keepers but not all do it, which seems to be enough to cause the rise in numbers of these cats due to a cats ability to breed quickly.

The classic methods for dealing with these cats are explored (trap, neuter, return or rehome) but no attempt is made to propose root solutions although Harwell does discuss some ideas one of which is compulsory registration. The problem with all compulsory schemes is enforcement, which will not take place to a sufficient extent to make legislation work or that is the argument against it. This is a false argument in my opinion although enforcement is a problem.

The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon (for)
On their home page they advocate that cats should spayed and neutered and be kept indoors and/or confined to enclosures and kept on a lead if going out. This would be good for the cats (less road deaths etc.) and for wildlife (less wild birds killed), they say. They say that free-roaming cats (not necessarily feral cats) kill tens of thousands of birds each year. Despite not supporting this statement with hard facts this organisation has the right approach in my opinion. I really think that cats are not the main reasons for wildlife depletion. It is nearly always due to direct human activity such as loss of habitat, pollution and pesticides. If it is due to stray cats it is still due to indirect human activity (abondoning cats and not neutering cats). Above all else what is good about this organization is that they promote tackling the root cause of the feral cat problem by responsible ownership. This is the first site I have come across that stresses this funadamental starting point.

National Geographic (neutral)
Their article presents the polarized views of anti-feral cat people who think that they kill a lot of wildlife and transmit disease and those who say that killing feral cats cannot be the solution. There is simply no data to support the statment that these cats kill significant numbers of wildlife and as
for disease this is simply nonsense. The article written in 2004 stated that there were 70,000,000 of these cats in the US and that there were hundreds of them per square km. The article made no attemmpt to propose real long term solutions.

HSUS (for)HSUSis a big organization with a voice but they simply support TNR (trap, neuter, return) and explain that. Bigger more wide ranging ideas and themes are needed and organizations like HSUS should lead the way.

Australia

Feral cats of Australia have become a bit of an issue for the Australian government (2008 2010). There are supposedly 12 million feral cats in Australia. Research claims that feral cats kill and have a large and negative impact on native wildlife. Some people have argued that the research is biased. It is my view on looking at the feral cats of Australia problem that the authorities are encouraging inhumane treatment of feral cats to get rid of them. The problem has affected the importation of the Savannah cat into the country.

The feral cats of China are some of the worst treated animals in the world. Animals of China have no protection under the law. Feral cats are turned into cat meat sometimes for human consumption (this might change – I hope so) and cat fur for trinkets (some of possibly finds its way to the